Note: Backdated from June 14 at 7:23 PM
Is it weird that I get chills hearing the coverage of the Iranian election? I mean I’ve been checking the HuffPo update page and it’s both exhilarating and surreal. I mean as a westerner and American, its maybe bias, but it does seem hard to believe that Ahmadinejad walked away with it so easy. And for the 3rd and 4th place candidates with legitimate parties to get less than 3% combined is strange. Not that there is any indication that Mousavi is any real change, but he’s better than the pseudo dictator Iran has now.
There are reports that students at Tehran University were beaten and arrested last night (Sunday in Iran) which is very disturbing. It is not more or less so than beatings of other innocent Iranians, but it strikes me hard as a politically active youth in the USA. For all the (mis)conceptions Americans have about Iran, it is a fairly developed nation, at least in Tehran, so it is striking that there are beatings. News also came that the EU has recognized Ahmadinejad as the victor, which is sort of disappointing. I was hoping at least for some sort of peaceful resolution such as a new election, although I guess change is unfolding in more violent and passionate ways now.
This is chilling quote from the National Iranian American Council via HuffPo:
“[We] are still safe, but to tell you the truth, all of us are feeling sick of what we have to see on streets these days. This afternoon, [we] saw five policemen attack a middle age lady. They beat her brutally, with no mercy. She tried to escape with her young daughter but they got her. I stopped and tried to help her, but three men in civilian clothes attacked my car, and I had to drive away because [my daughter] was with me. Tonight, people shouted “Allah o Akabar” from their roof tops, but hundreds of police forces on bikes swept the streets and marked houses from which they could hear voices. Tomorrow, I will go to a lawyer to ask for a [foreign] visa. This country will not be a safe place anymore, and I don’t want to repeat my parents’ mistake in 1979 by staying and watching.”
Here is the link to the Huffington Post update page, with everything from a collection of Tweets from Iranians to a CNN report with Christiane Amanpour and Fareed Zakaria. It’s the best sort of aggregate of news I’ve come accross. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html
